ARTIST STATEMENT
As a single mother and immigrant woman, I have spent much of my life navigating systems that attempted to quiet or diminish me, from academic discrimination to the subtle and overt biases embedded in daily life. My artwork becomes the place where I reclaim the voice that was once expected to stay silent.
The woman in this piece, covered in a dragon tattoo, represents a spirit that cannot be tamed. The dragon is both shield and storyteller: a symbol of ancestry, feminine ferocity, and the fire that rises in response to oppression. She embodies the strength I drew upon while surviving, raising my children, and completing my nursing degree despite facing prejudice.
My work stands against the language and narratives used to belittle women. It honors those who endure quietly yet possess an inner strength that refuses to be erased. By presenting her calm but unyielding presence, I affirm that dignity, identity, and dreams cannot be silenced. This piece is my act of dissent, a declaration that every woman holds a power that no insult can contain.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Set Gozo is a Filipina visual artist whose work explores ancestry, resilience, and the lived experiences of women navigating displacement, identity, and reinvention. Born in the Philippines, she earned her undergraduate degree in Visual Arts from the University of the Philippines in 1985. After immigrating to the United States, she pursued a nursing degree at Purdue University (1993) and later completed a Bachelor of Science in Health Care Administration at Calumet College of Saint Joseph (1996).
Her artistic practice expanded through studies in photography and ceramics at Indiana University in 1997. Since 2016, Set has been a resident artist at the Bridgeport Art Center in Chicago. She taught ceramics for five years at the Chicago Ceramic Center and now teaches from her own studio.
Set continues to balance her nursing career with a deeply rooted creative practice, treating art as a therapeutic and communal form of expression. She has received multiple awards, exhibited in numerous juried shows, and previously served on the boards of Chicago Sculpture International and the Chicago Alliance of Visual Artists.
© Set Gozo